A three-credit, special topics class taught by Lisa Weinberg and graduate assistant Andrew Mannheimer, Sociology of Hip Hop is not all play and no work. It uses a subject of high interest to teach the not easily understood theoretical perspectives used in analyzing social methods, Weinberg said.

"I get comments from every single class I teach that school is so boring. I'm always looking for ways to get them as excited as I am," she said.

Weinberg and Mannheimer unveiled the class last summer before getting the green light to add it to the sociology department curriculum this semester. They will be presenting a paper on their course at a Southern regional conference in April.

The hip-hop class is designed to accommodate 65 students, but more than 105 showed up for the first class on Jan. 8 hoping to find a place on her roster. Forty-some students who were not enrolled sat on the floor for the entire 75 minutes of the first class, something Weinberg had never witnessed.

The second class featured a guest lecturer, local celebrity DJ Demp, who talked about the evolution of hip hop over the past two decades: how rap music moved into the mainstream and a multibillion dollar industry popularly referred to as hip hop came to life.

Mannheimer, 25, mesmerized the class during the first week when he demonstrated his own proficiency with rap.

"Being passionate about hip hop, I believe it's a culture that deserves serious academic study," Mannheimer, whose stage name is Yt (young and talented), said. "If we're going to examine society I think it's important for us to be up to date."

Florida State has plenty of company in higher education circles as numerous institutions are creating classes devoted to popular culture subjects, from graffiti to vampires and the "Twilight" movie series. No less than Harvard and Duke recently have offered courses on hip hop.

Two years ago Florida A&M started the hybrid Hip Hop Institute, housed in the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication. It has since moved to the music department and has been renamed Institute for Research in Music and Entertainment.

The phenomenon of English or sociology departments rolling out classes on pop culture goes back about three decades, when courses focused on television found their way into curricula. Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, is a staunch advocate of the study of the here and now.

"Universities are about understanding the world that we live in," he said. "While it's true we need to understand presidents and wars and our epoch, we also have to understand our cheeseburgers and our lawn ornaments and our hip hop. I think we should be required to study hip hop."

Weinberg uses hip hop to probe a wide range of issues, from gender equity to disenfranchisement. She has her students asking themselves if hip hop reflects popular culture, or instead drives it.

It didn't take long for rappers to focus on last year's shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and Weinberg expects it's only a matter of days before songs will evoke last month's massacre at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

"There's a rich amount of material for pedagogical purposes. It's fresh and it connects the students. It meets all those needs you want," she said.

Ike Eberstein, chairman of the sociology department, applauds what Weinberg and Mannheimer are doing. "We're really excited about this class," he said. "Anything that engages students like this one does, I think it's a good thing."

There were no empty seats last Thursday when Weinberg and Mannheimer showed clips from the documentary "The Hip Hop Years" as a springboard into broader conversations.

It featured interviews with then-Vice President Dan Quayle reacting to Ice T's infamous song, "Cop Killer," as well as the musician-turned-actor's response to Quayle (sales tripled following the public feud).

"I came in here not knowing much about hip hop," Burghart said. "I'm learning a lot I didn't know."

Whisnant, on the other hand, was familiar with almost every artist and song talked about during the class.

"It's great to learn more about hip hop culture and how it started," he said. "The class has been great."

Weinberg specializes in social inequality and frequently teaches the mass introduction to sociology courses. She takes the same approach to the Sociology of Hip Hop that she does to other courses, she said. "It's really no different in my mind," she said, "except it's more fun."